A Ship to Remember: Uss Edsall (Dd 219)
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A SHIP TO REMEMBER: USS EDSALL (DD 219) By Lion Miles & Co-authors Kelly Long, Dixie Geary U.S.S. EDSALL DD-219 The sinking of USS Edsall in 1942 is one of stand as the epitaph for the USS Edsall DD219 as the most remarkable stories of seamanship and well. courage to come out of World War II. Little was Edsall was a four-stack flush-deck destroyer, known of the events surrounding her last designed in World Ward I but launched in 1920. engagement until 1980, when naval historians began Like other ships 80 ships of her class, she was not to examine videos received from the Japanese. armored, having to rely on her speed and maneuverability for survival in combat. She could This story’s purpose is to honor the Edsall’s make 35 knots, as fast as the more modern American sailors who gave their lives that day and destroyer’s and cruisers of the Japanese Navy but specifically for Henry Franklin Thaw, Electrician she was badly outclassed in terms of armament, with Mate First Class, who perished with the sinking of only four 4-inch guns in her main battery. the Edsall. Thaw was father of co-author Dixie Geary and grandfather of co-author Kelley Long. Edsall joined the Asiatic Fleet in 1925, after distinguishing herself honorably in Europeans Prime author Lion Miles was the son of waters, and spending the next fifteen years Lt.Lion Miles of the gunboat USS AshevillePG21 protecting American interests along the Chinese who perished three days later when the Asheville coast from Shanghai to Hong Kong. When Pearl was sunk in battle. Miles is a noted Historian. Harbor was attacked, she was serving with Destroyer Division 57 at Balikpapan, Borneo. She The Edsall was named after Norman Eckley immediately sailed to Singapore and searched for Edsall born 3 June 1873 in Columbus, Ky., enlisted the survivors of HMS Prince of Wales and HMS in the Navy 27 June 1898. While serving in Repulse, British capital ship sunk on December 10, Philadelphia, Seaman Edsall went ashore with a 1941, by Japanese aircraft. Then she went to Java landing party on 1 April 1899 to suppress hostile and acted as an escort for ships fleeing south to natives near Apia, Samoa. He was killed attempting Australia before the advancing Japanese. On to carry his wounded commander to safety, and is January 20, 1942, she participated in the first buried on Samoa, in the same South Seas where the sinking of large Japanese submarine and was ship Edsall was to go down fighting a generation damaged by a depth charge, one of her own which later. Seaman Edsall, the records say, “showed a exploded prematurely while she was making the spirit of bravery and self-sacrifice in keeping with submarine attack. She was leaking badly and the standard of the Unites States Navy.” This could dispatched to Tjilatjap for repairs. Desperately short of combat aircraft, the missed. Immediately, Edsall’s skipper, Lieutenant American Navy dispatched the old aircraft carrier Joshua Nix of Memphis, Tennessee, laid down a USS Langley, with 32 P-40 fighters, from Australia smokescreen and began a series of evasive to Java. Destroyers Edsall and Whipple were maneuvers that were to frustrate the Japanese for the ordered out of Tjilatjap and to rendezvous with the next hour and a half. carrier and escort her to Tjilatjap, who then had made much preparatory work to receive, assemble At 1747 battleships Hiei and Kirishima and fly the new aircraft. But when they joined opened fire with their main batteries of 14-inch guns Langley, on February 27, Japanese bombers and ordered all units to attack the American appeared overhead and attacked the old carrier. destroyer. They began firing at a range of 27,000 Their bombs set fire to the ship, and the crew were meters(14-1/2 nautical miles) and their shots also forced to abandon her, being rescued by the two missed the target. At 1756 Lieutenant Nix destroyers. Edsall and Whipple picked up 485 men courageously turned his ship directly toward from the water and then sank the crippled Langley Chikuma and closed the range so as to fire his 4- with gunfire and torpedoes. inch guns, but his shots fell short. Proceeding southwest to Christmas Island, Chikuma stopped firing at 1800 when she the destroyers transferred the rescued sailors to the entered a rain squall and Edsall laid down smoke. Navy oiler, USS Pecos. Edsall took on board 32 However, the intensive fire from all four Japanese pilots and mechanics from Whipple and received ships resumed when the hapless American ship orders to take them back north to Tjilatjap, pilots became visible again. Because they were shooting at without planes! She departed Christmas Island on such long ranges, Lieutenant Nix was able to the morning of February 28, with about 185 officers observe the flash of the guns and turn his ship in and men. Her movements for the next day and a half time to avoid being hit. He did so approximately are unknown. However, from the location of her every minute. He also abruptly varied his speed sinking and the distances involved, it appears that from 30 knots to full stop and back again, while she did not return to Java but sailed on a southerly making turns as wide as 360- degrees. Since Edsall course instead. On March 1 Japanese tropes began had suffered damage earlier off Java when one of landing on the northern coast of Java and the Navy her depth charges exploded too close astern, her ordered all American warships to rendezvous at a performance had been reduced and there was no point to the south for further escape to Australia. hope for her to outrun the enemy and try to escape. Certainly Edsall received that order by radio. She could only stay on station and avoid destruction as long as possible. Three days earlier, on February 25, Admiral Nagumo’s Carrier Strike Force (carriers Soryu and Japanese naval gunnery was relatively poor Akagi) sortied from Staring Bay at Kendari, during the early stages of the war, often wasteful Celebes, and entered the Indian Ocean with the and ineffective. The attack on Edsall was a prime mission “to cut off any escape of the Allied Forces.” example. The official history of Japan’s navy states Nagumo’s Support Force consisted of the Third that some 1400 rounds were fired in the engagement Battleship Division (battleship Hiei and Kirishima) but, until near the end of the battle, only one round and the Eighth Cruiser Division (heavy cruisers found its mark. However, the action reports of Tone Tone and Chikuma).As fate would have it, destroyer and Chikuma show that two direct hits (meichu) Edsall had the misfortune to meet this formidable were made on Edsall, one by Hiei at 1824 and force on the afternoon of March 1, 1942. another by Tone at 1835. Still, this is an extremely bad percentage and much of it is to the credit of At a position about 250 miles south- Lieutenant Nix’s superb ship handling under the southeast of Christmas Island the cruiser Tone was worst possible circumstances. the first to spot Edsall at a distance of 15 miles to the northwest. Twelve minutes later Chikuma So frustrated were the Japanese commanders sighted Edsall too, turned, and opened fire with her after an hour had passed that an order went out to 8-inch guns at 1730. The range was extremely long the nearby Carrier Strike Force for the assistance of at 21,000 meters (11 nautical miles) and all shots aircraft. Nine dive-bombers from Soryu and eight from Akagi attacked Edsall from 1827 to 1850, even extraordinary heroism, outstanding courage, while she made smoke for the fourth time. The gallantry in action and distinguished service in the planes scored a number of hits with eight 550-pound line of his profession as commanding officer of USS bombs and nine 1100-pound bombs, setting Edsall Edsall.” It is never too late to honor our heroes. on fire in what he Japanese called a raging conflagration (kasai). Whether because the destroyer Reprinted in USS Houston Website (as PDF ) was now out of control or Lieutenant Nix made a (USSHOUSTON.ORG) by permission from final courageous gesture of defiance, Edsall now CHINA GUNBOATMAN the official newsletter of turned directly toward her pursers and came dead in the South China Yangtze Patrol, Asiatic Fleet the water. The battleships and cruisers pounded her September issue, 2002 relentlessly with their secondary batteries until she went down at 1900 in position 13-45S 106-45E, 430 Editor: Walter Ashe, 2606 River Ridge Drive, miles south of Java. Ashville, NC 28803. Phone 828-298-9307 Cruiser Chikuma picked up an undetermined [email protected] number of survivors, possibly as many as five. Under interrogation they revealed the name of their See usshouston.org for a link to the website on the ship, which appears in Chikuma’s log as Edsall’s skipper, Joshua Nix. “Edosooru.” They also explained to their captors how Lieutenant Nix was able to keep his ship afloat for so long a time while under heavy fire. They described how he changed course when he observed the flash of the Japanese guns, how he made turns up to 360 degrees, how he changed his speed from full to stop, and how he laid down smokescreens.. On this intelligence the Japanese recommended a number of changes to the gunnery curriculum at their Yokosuka Naval Base. To counter the possibility of an enemy ship evading shells at long range, they reduced the initial firing range to 12,000 meters for cruisers against destroyers and l7, 000 meters for destroyers against destroyers.